Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam recently took the stage during a UBS conference in New York where he explained that Verizon once considered purchasing Hulu. McAdam did not comment on another rumor, which suggests that Verizon is working on building its own video streaming service that could compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon. Reuters first reported on the rumor and said the service could be deployed next year in areas where Verizon doesn’t offer its FiOS broadband and TV products. It is unclear what programming partners Verizon is speaking with, although Reuters suggested Epix or Viacom would be two content companies that might be interested. “If this deal comes true it’s not clear to me what Verizon would bring to the table that is materially different to what others like Amazon offer,” Bernstein Research analyst Carlos Kirjner told Reuters. McAdams did admit that, while Verizon may not be purchasing Hulu now, his company “[continues] to look at alternatives.” More →

Speaking during a recent UBS conference in New York City, Verizon Communications CEO Lowell McAdam said that Verizon Wireless may rollout shared data plans next year. Currently, a family of five must have a different data plan for each member of the household; however, the new plans could potentially allow all five family members to share a pool of data, much like a family would share voice minutes. The same benefits could apply to a single customer who has separate data plans for a tablet, a smartphone and a USB modem. “I think in 2012 we will see it,” McAdam said. “We have been working on this for a couple of years. Getting to one bill and getting to account-level pricing is our goal.” McAdam also said that Isis, a mobile wallet initiative created by Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and AT&T, will begin a “significant” rollout of its NFC mobile payment system by the end of 2012 and that it will begin to generate revenue for Verizon by 2013. More →

45,000 Verizon employees, or about 25% of the company’s workforce, continued their strike on Monday after the company failed to reach an agreement with labor unions, Bloomberg reported. It is the first strike in 11 years at Verizon and it could end up affecting customers waiting for new phone and web installations or phone support, though Verizon has 40,000 other employees on hand. The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers don’t want to pay monthly premiums on health benefits, but Verizon isn’t quite willing to spend more money on the unions as customers continue to opt for wireless service and internet entertainment in place of phone lines and cable TV. “It is clear that some of the existing contract provisions, negotiated initially when Verizon was under far less competitive pressure, are not in line with the economic realities of business today,” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said Sunday. “In fact, under these contracts, benefit costs have risen consistently even as the wireline business has shrunk.” “We’re looking to bring our union more in line with what the rest of the workers pay,” Verizon spokesperson Rich Young said, noting that a majority of Verizon’s employees pay part of their health insurance premiums. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers manager Bill Huber sees it differently. “These aren’t negotiations, they’re an insult,” he said. “This is a clear attack on our unions.” More →

Newly appointed Verizon Communications CEO Lowell McAdam is already making waves. While fielding questions on Verizon’s earnings call on Friday, McAdam let slip some interesting notes regarding Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone. The executive was asked by an analyst if he thought Verizon Wireless would meet earlier estimates projecting that smartphones would be in the hands of 50% of postpaid subscribers this year. “We like the gross add mix that we see coming in here. We are in the roughly 60% kind of range,” McAdam responded according to the Associated Press’ transcription. He continues, “We are probably what I would view as maybe a quarter behind what we had talked about in January, primarily because we expected an iPhone 5 refresh sometime this summer. We don’t know when the next one is going to come out. You will have to ask Apple that, but we expect that probably sometime in the fall, and I think you will see a significant jump there when we get to that point.” More →

Speaking during a recent Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, Verizon’s Chief Operating Officer Lowell McAdam said he expects AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA to be approved by government regulators. “I’d say the merger will probably go through,” McAdam said. “It’s a merger AT&T probably had to do.” While other carriers such as Sprint have been vocal in their opposition of the deal, Verizon has remained relatively quiet. According to Reuters, McAdam said he was surprised AT&T hadn’t purchased T-Mobile sooner and that the deal “makes sense.” On Wednesday, Senate Antitrust Subcommitee chairman Herb Kohl called on the FCC and the Justice Department to block the merger and said the deal would be “contrary to antitrust law and not in the public interest.” AT&T quickly shot down Kohl’s statement and said Kohl ignored “the many positive benefits and numerous supporters of the transaction.” Among those supporters is Senator Mike Lee, who argued that the “mobile phone market is a critical component of our nation’s economy and the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile deserves careful review.” More →

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam on Tuesday confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that Verizon Wireless will offer a $30 unlimited data plan for the iPhone 4. McAdam said that offering the iPhone with a capped data plan would create an unnecessary barrier for customers looking to switch from AT&T. “I’m not going to shoot myself in the foot,” he told the Journal. The move also gives Verizon Wireless an advantage among customers looking to make their first iPhone purchase. While existing iPhone users on AT&T’s network may be grandfathered into the carrier’s old unlimited data plan, new subscribers are forced to choose between two capped plans, the larger of which only provides 2GB of data for $25 per month. Set to launch on February 10th, Verizon Wireless bills the iPhone 4 as the device that millions of its subscribers have been waiting for.

UPDATE: McAdam later stated that the iPhone’s unlimited data plan will be a limited time offer, after which Verizon Wireless will move to capped data plans similar to the plans offered by AT&T. More →

Speaking to a crowd of investors at a Barclay’s conference this week, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said that the introduction of its LTE network later this year will see the company introduce tiered data plans. According to McAdam, one of the reasons Big Red has opted to go this route with its next-generation network is because “people will have four or five or perhaps even more devices they will connect to the network.” Before anyone starts to wig out, McAdam made it clear that the tiered pricing won’t be as expensive as it sounds. Thanks to the efficiency of LTE, Verizon’s cost per megabyte will be approximately one-third of what they are today. At the same time, McAdam also said that LTE will offer further savings to customers, as he expects that all calls made come 2012 will be done via VoIP as opposed to its CDMA network. Verizon is expected to have LTE in place in 30 to 40 markets by the end of 2010.

You will see devices like the Palm Pre and the Cousin on our network from Palm. You will see a second-generation Storm. You will see a new device we call the Tour from BlackBerry as well. That is an upscale of any other QWERTY-based devices that we have from BlackBerry today. You’ll see Motorola back into our portfolio. We feel very good about the progress that the Motorola team has made. And, yes, you’re going to see Android devices as well.

Most of this is the same old information that McAdams has been spouting about Verizon’s upcoming handsets for the last month. We already knew about the Palm Pre rumor which Verizon and Sprint have been batting about like a badminton shuttlecock. The Storm 2 has been mentioned both by RIM and Verizon, and Android has gotten a mention or two as well. The Motorola lineup is presumably initiated by the Rival which hit Verizon just after this conference. Last but not least, we have the official public acknowledgment of the Tour by a Verizon executive. Now if we can just get him to slip a release date or two — especially one that starts with tuh, tuh, T-O-U-R and ends with July…